Synopsis
On March 4, the Bombay High Court temporarily suspended a special court's order directing the ACB to file an FIR against ex-SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and five other officials amid allegations of stock market fraud.Key Takeaways
- Bombay High Court stays FIR order for four weeks.
- Involves former SEBI Chairperson and five officials.
- Allegations include stock market fraud.
- High Court criticized special court's lack of detail.
- Investigation to be supervised by the court.
Mumbai, March 4 (NationPress) The Bombay High Court has imposed a four-week suspension on a special court's directive that instructed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to initiate an FIR against former SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch along with five other officials.
This special court's order was a response to allegations of stock market fraud and violations of regulatory standards. However, the High Court remarked that the order was issued “mechanically, without adequate examination of the facts or assigning clear roles to the accused parties.”
In his judgment, Justice Shivkumar Dige indicated that the special court's ruling on March 1 failed to “explore the particulars of the case or identify any explicit misconduct by the accused individuals.”
The High Court's decision followed petitions submitted by Buch and the other implicated officials, including three current SEBI directors -- Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G, and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney -- along with two BSE officials, namely Managing Director and CEO Ramamurthy and former Chairman Pramod Agarwal.
The petitioners contended that the special court’s order was both unlawful and arbitrary, seeking to have it annulled.
SEBI, in its statement, denounced the application submitted in the ACB court, labeling it as trivial and underscoring that the officials involved were not serving in their respective roles during the time of the alleged offenses.
SEBI further stated that the application was initiated by a “habitual litigant,” stressing that the ACB court’s order prevented them from presenting their defense.
The court acknowledged the existence of prima facie evidence suggesting regulatory failures and potential collusion, subsequently ordering an unbiased investigation to occur under the court's oversight.
In light of this, the Bombay High Court has temporarily stayed the special court's directive, granting additional time for the examination of the situation before proceeding with any further legal actions.
